There is a term that is starting to float around our country called “The Pussification of America”. This term represents how America continues to become softer and softer as time goes on. Here in America, we used to be known for our toughness and dying desire to succeed as a country at whatever cost necessary.

Now everyone seems to be so much more sheltered with the mindset that if they so much as step outside their front door, they are in life-threatening danger. In my opinion, people need to realize that if you are going to live your life in a state of paranoia like many people nowadays do, then you really aren’t living much of a life.

This “pussification” issue is even starting to influence our beloved National Football League. The NFL recently overtook baseball as America’s favorite sport mostly due to the plain and simple fact that Americans love violence. Football was once a sport that could be described with one great word: “brutality”. If the league continues to evolve the way it has the past few seasons, then in the next few years, our once favorite sport will be described with one not-so-great word: “soft”.

The NFL is slowly becoming softer with new rules being added each year in an attempt to protect the players. It would sound cruel for me to argue that players should not be protected as much as possible, but I am about to do this anyway.

Many former NFL players, especially in recent years, have loudly voiced their complaints that they can no longer function properly in their day-to-day lives because of the beatings that they took during their NFL careers. None of them are pushing for more rules to be enforced to help ensure the safety of the players, but rather they would like to be compensated with health benefits to pay their hefty medical bills for the rest of their lives.

It is easy to argue that these players made enough money during their playing days to be more than capable of paying for the best medical treatment available on a regular basis, but it can also be argued that the NFL should be responsible for taking care of their former employees for issues that are the direct result of their careers. It seems that the NFL has become somewhat disturbed by how badly the bodies of former NFL players break down soon after their careers end and rather than supporting former players’ health expenses, the league is coming up with rule after rule to make football a less dangerous game. If this continues at the rate of the past few years, the NFL will no longer have to worry about player safety because the league will generate about as much fan interest as a flag football game at a local city park. The lack of interest will result in a lack of revenue, which will result in a lack of a professional football league in America.

Another issue that has rocked the football world is all the talk of concussions. In the past few years, concussions have been a topic of discussion as well as studies uncovering the impact that they have on the human brain. This is another issue that has to be taken very seriously, and nothing can be argued against that.

Concussions have been proven to lead to depression, dysfunctional behavior, and even suicide in many cases, including a handful of former NFL players. This is the issue that has led to all of the rules protecting the quarterback and especially the rules against the helmet-to-helmet hits. I agree with most of these rules, but I think there needs to be much better judgment used by referees for when to throw the flag.

Many times, a player does not have enough time to adjust his body to avoid a helmet-to-helmet hit on a quarterback or wide receiver. With all of these players drawing crucial 15 yard personal fouls and being fined around $20K for these types of hits, they are eventually going to start slowing down to think about how to hit the ball-carrier rather than relying on split-second instinctual decision which is simply to crush the player and force the ball out.

If safeties and linebackers in the NFL start to slow down to adjust their bodies and avoid a vicious hit on a receiver catching a ball over the middle of the field, this is not the type of game that we all have fallen in love with.

Most players in the NFL are paid millions of dollars per year to put their bodies on the line 16 times per year. Nobody is forcing them to play a violent sport for a living, this is their decision. Each and every one of them can make the decision not to play football and to get a regular job instead. More than 99.9% of the world is not worthy of playing a sport for a living, and most of them are able to support themselves some other way. If I was capable of playing in the NFL, I would absolutely be willing to take the beating for that amount of money. I would even do it for the league minimum salary with no complaints. After my career, I would never go back and complain to the league about all of my problems that are the result of football. It was my decision to play football for a living, these are the consequences, and I will deal with them. This is what the NFL should be saying to the players that come back and complain about their issues, as cruel as that sounds.

Another more important suggestion that I have for the NFL is a much better way to protect players than all of the ticky-tack penalties that have been implemented. Some of these penalties are even softer than the fouls called every 30 seconds in the NBA. Rather than throwing a flag anytime someone gets more physical than a 5th grader playing two-hand touch at recess, the NFL could ban all testable supplements. In my opinion, the main reason that there are so many more head injuries than in the distant past, and injuries in general, is because the players have become so much bigger and faster.

This size and speed of the players result in collisions with impact that seems almost as violent as a car collision. Preventing the use of supplements and other performance enhancing drugs would help take away just a little size and speed of each player making the impact of these collisions a little less dangerous.

Just the other day, the league finally said that it would start testing for human growth hormone (HGH). This is a drug that is almost as effective as steroids, and I can almost guarantee that more than a handful of the players in the NFL are currently using it. Taking away HGH and other performance enhancing drugs will shrink the size of players to close to the size of players of a few decades ago, which would lead to less injury.

The NFL is slowly starting to resemble a game of flag football with all of the rules against certain types of hitting. If a ball-carrier’s pinky toe steps out of bounds and a safety is in hot pursued launching him out of bounds, should this warrant a flag? No way. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I have seen way too many flags thrown when the defender has no chance of slowing down or changing direction. The ball-carrier should have to take three steps out of bounds for this to be a flag. Make the rules more objective rather than subjective relying on unreliable referees to make the call.

There are other solutions for protection of players. Maybe outlaw all types of supplements or come up with newly designed helmets and other equipment that will provide more safety. The NFL needs to man up and go back to the old rules where there pretty much are no rules once the ball is snapped even if it means that they have to wrap pillows around each of the players to protect them. If this does not happen and the league continues to soften up each year, then by the next decade the MLB or even the NBA (gasps) will take over as America’s favorite sport. I may not be able to influence prevention of the pussification of the United States of America, but my God, if I can stop the pussification of the NFL, I damn sure will.

So…you are saying that a large part of the injuries can be traced to players taking performance enhancing substances? thats not even the case now days…as the majority dont. 15 yrs ago or more, sure, many more people did it.

how could you possibly “gaurantee” that more than a handful of players use it. and if there ARE a lot using it, than it kind of evens out. either way, these players are GIANT men. hits hurt. the rules do in fact remove some of the injuries. how could enforcing some rules about certain plays (helmet to helmet, running out of bounds, protecting QB’s) possibly pussify the NFL? people are still going to get creamed…CREAMED by legal hits. careers will still end because of legal hits.

the league is cracking down on the dirty shit that adds to it all, and is AGAINST THE RULES THAT WERE ALREADY IN PLACE. you wanna see a guy get his head knocked off? i have a league for you….UFC. you wanna see people die, so as not to be considered a pussy? watch IndyCar or Nascar.

Relying on some sort of better equipment in the future…. the equipment is constantly being upgraded. so what…NFL should relax its rules because of a nifty new helmet?

what im saying is that it may be nice to see all the crazy hits, people laid out…but you say that as an observer (i can gaurantee you are not an NFL player, current or former). now how about the players perspective… that shit hurts.

if these rules werent in place…jay cutler would not be able to walk, and would be drinking through a straw for the rest of his life.. i know… “what a pussy”

Nick Rohman

100% Truth besides the supplements part. That was kind of dumb.

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